Monday, October 30, 2006

Zingale (from the word 'sing'. Many people thought that they were named after the Hebrew slang word for a 'grass joint') was formed in 1974 by David Bachar and Yonathan Stern. They joined in Barak, Tamir and Shanan who were session/studio musicians. This line-up recorded in 1974 two tracks (tracks 10-11 from the CD) that were presented to the radio but received no attention at all. The group realized very soon that the musicians had a real chemistry between them. Jacob Bachar who was the manager thought the group had a real international potential and he got 'Kolinor Studios' in Israel and 'Decca Records' in Europe (who's president was personally interested and involved) to invest in the group. Two new members joined - Brower and Weiss. The group started working on an English LP. By the end of 1975 the recordings were completed and the group was preparing to go on a European tour to be sponsored by 'Decca.' Unfortunately a message came in that Decca's president had a heart attack and the whole process was postponed. In the meantime, the group had started working on new Hebrew material and was signed by ;Hataklit; in Israel. During 1976 and 1977 they had recorded new tracks in Hebrew, some of which were sent to radio stations (tracks 12-15). By that time the group had given up hope of an international career, and they decided to release their English record in Israel. In 1977, 'Peace' was finally released. The LP was released in a small edition and had become an extremely rare & expensive collectors item around the world. Soon after the release of the LP, the group had split up due to arguments on the recordings and mixes of the Hebrew album (which were never actually finished) and due to the fact that Stern and Tamir had left the group in favor of their growing interest in religion. (http://www.proggnosis.com/)

Israeli progressive rock band from the 70's, hailing from Tel Aviv & Ramat-Gan. They managed to complete only one (English-sung) album, called "Peace", in 1975. The band disbanded due to low sales in Israel and no international interest in their music. ZINGALE's chief talents were Tony Brower (violin) and Adi Weiss (keyboards), but also Udi Tamir's bass is worthy of mention. The lyrics were inspired by the painful memories of the Israeli "Yom Kippur" war in 1973 (some of the band members fought that war, and lost relatives & friends), and are concerned with the importance of global peace.ZINGALE's album has been reissued on CD in 1992, with some Hebrew-sung bonus tracks that were intended for their next Israeli album. There's also a later digipack version of that same reissue. The sound quality is below average, since the master tapes were not found at the time. There are rumours of a planned remaster using newly found master tapes, but it hadn't materialized it.

anyway,the song 'one minut prayer' is a song in hebrew played backwords..

i flipped it and it's a really nice song:

"If you are alone,with no loveOr if you fell into the sea when there's a stormLook around, maybe there's a boat there,No-one can hear you, the world is not drawning.Don't stop sleeping" [a translation from hebrew]

I've had this for a few months, and it really is a good record, although the recording quality, as stated, could be better. As far as the name goes, notice the shape of the word Zingale on the cover - remind you of anything?

To Tom:Yes, it would be great if you could post some more Prog from Israel - I'm just starting to delve into the Israeli Prog scene and would love to know more.